Head Pro Spotlight - Suzy Whaley

By: Joel Zuckerman

Club pros are rarely in the news. But the November 2014 appointment of Suzy Whaley as the first female secretary of the PGA of America - which puts her in line to become the president of the 27,000-member organization in four years - made headlines beyond the sports pages. Yet this is not the first time Whaley has been in the national spotlight.

It was more than a decade ago that the Connecticut-based teaching professional qualified for the PGA Tour's 2003 Greater Hartford Open by virtue of winning the 2002 Connecticut Section PGA Championship. That set off a media firestorm which raged for the better part of nine months. "That first day alone my husband and I must have received about 700 phone calls," recalls Whaley. "It was Newsweek, Time, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, inquiries from Japan, China, Australia, Sweden, throughout Europe. It was overwhelming!"

Equally overwhelming was the turnout when Whaley stepped onto the first tee at TPC River Highlands that July morning for the tournament's opening round, with thousands of patrons lining the fairway. "I popped up my drive about 200 yards down the middle, and I was thrilled to have managed that much!"

It would be easy to surmise that her opening tee shot was the most nerve-wracking of her career, but that's incorrect. At least she managed to get the ball on a peg. Twenty years earlier as a 16-year-old, in her first and only U.S. Women's Open appearance, Suzy was joined on the first tee in a practice round by LPGA legend JoAnne Carner, one of her idols. "On the first hole I was literally too nervous to put the ball on a tee, so I hit driver off the deck! She mentored and coached me the entire round, and that day remains one of my fondest golf memories."

After graduating from the University of North Carolina, where she made acquaintances with fellow Tarheel athletes Davis Love III and Michael Jordan, she went on to excel in Chapel Hill, enjoying a stellar four years on and off the golf course.

She surprised herself by making it to the LPGA Tour, albeit with non-exempt status. Because the Tour was thriving in the early '90s, with three dozen or so events, the rookie had numerous opportunities to play. Unlike the Tour itself, Whaley didn't thrive, earning a measly two grand that season. With no status the following year, she worked as a waitress and worked on her game, and despite her mother's admonitions not to date golf pros, she married PGA professional Bill Whaley, who was serving as her swing coach during her one-year hiatus from competition.

Her second stint on Tour as a newlywed in 1992 was equally dismal as her first. So, with her husband's encouragement - at the time the head professional at Ibis Country Club in Palm Beach, Fla. - she decided to explore teaching the game.

With newborn Jennifer being cared for by a trusted sitter, the young mother became, in her words, "an unpaid and unappreciated apprentice" at the Nicklaus-Flick Golf School, not far from their home in Palm Beach Gardens. "In 1995 I spent almost the whole year sitting in a chair, observing this amazing group of teachers give lessons: Jim Flick, Bob Toski, Laird Small, Martin Hall, Mike Malaska, Dean Reinmuth, Mark Wood and Charlie Epps, among others."

The irony is that even though she was amidst this Mount Rushmore of instructors, it was Whaley herself who was as quiet and still as a mountainside carving, absorbing the nuances and subtlety of communication that brought these instructors to the top of their profession. "I listened and learned, and when Jim Flick eventually asked my opinion on an instructional technique and didn't like my answer, I was banished back to my chair for another couple of months," recalls Whaley, smiling at the memory.

Flick offered her a real job a year later, and despite being confined to the putting green for another entire year, Whaley spent almost eight years as an instructor at the school, mostly doing contract work at Desert Mountain in Arizona, with daughter Kelly coming along three years after her older sister.

"The key to being a good teacher is connecting with the individual on an interpersonal level," suggests Whaley, one of Golf Digest's 50 Top Instructors. "If you can connect, you can change their behavior. It's imperative that you let students know how much you value their time. The trick is being able to assist people with different abilities, egos, ages, athleticism, attitudes and experience who all want the same thing - to play better golf. If everyone was the same the job would be far simpler!"

After moving to Connecticut with her family, she was hired as the teaching professional at Tumble Brook CC in the Hartford suburb of Bloomfield. "I loved the club and never would have left, but four years later I was recruited by a woman named Lisa Wilson Foley to run her public golf course called Blue Fox Run in nearby Avon. I had never been a head professional before, so I wanted to explore that side of the business," explains the three-time winner of the Connecticut Open.

"It is rare for a woman to own a golf course, and Lisa wanted a woman head pro at her club, so I came on board, and had to learn every aspect of running a golf operation, trying to make a modest daily-fee facility (which charged about $25 per player at the time) the most fabulous experience it could be."

Hectic doesn't begin to describe the pace that ensued, with both Bill and Suzy working 70-plus hours at their respective positions, and with two little ones at home. At least Bill was a seasoned pro. His wife was embroiled in trial and error - with emphasis on the latter. That was never more apparent than after she approved and purchased 30,000 new scorecards emblazoned with the incorrect phone number.

"The learning curve was steep," admits the two-time Connecticut Section Teacher of the Year. "I had never run a men's league, women's league, corporate league, ordered merchandise, hired a staff, or done the books. I never would have survived without Bill. I called him at least 10 times a day for months."

Amidst all the craziness, Whaley found some time to play competitively, and when she won the Connecticut Section PGA Championship in September 2002 she had punched her ticket to the GHO the following June. "I was never even thinking about that exemption when I entered. I was playing great that summer, and had won the LPGA National Tournament and Club Professional Championship by a record nine shots a few months earlier. I was just focusing on a high finish, and collecting a nice check."

Whaley shot 5-under par for the 54-hole event, winning by a couple shots. She was allowed to play at 90 percent of the men's distance, about 6,300 yards compared to the men at 7,000 yards. Of course, there would be no such distance dispensation granted by the PGA Tour at the Greater Hartford Open, one of the main reasons she thought long and hard before accepting the challenge confronting her.

"Other than in my profession I was a person of obscurity, working a full-time job, with two small girls at home," recalls Whaley, still with a sense of wonderment. "And then overnight the phone started ringing, and didn't stop! Everyone wanted to know one thing: Would I take part in the tournament."

Hamlet-like, she pondered the question endlessly: "To play or not to play?" It was three entire months before she decided to plunge into the abyss. "I needed to decide what was right for my family, my employer and the PGA of America, which I would be representing. I continually emphasized that my real job was to ensure that other people were having fun and enjoying the game, and not spend all my time playing golf myself. I also knew that once I committed there would be no turning back, so I had to be 100 percent sure I could give it my best."

Nothing could prepare her for the throngs that awaited her on the first tee. The records show she shot rounds of 75 and 78 on the 6,800-yard, par-70 course, missing the cut but beating three men, and only one stroke behind 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson.

It was a heady time for women's golf. Annika Sorenstam played the Colonial two months earlier. Precocious 13-year-old Michelle Wie, now a U.S. Open champion herself, played in the final group at an LPGA major that spring, carding a top-10 finish. There were magazine covers, photo shoots, TV interviews, and comprehensive publicity the likes of which women's golf had never previously received.

"My goals were much different than Annika's," continues Whaley. "She expected to compete, and was striving for a high finish. I wanted to serve as an example to women to grab an opportunity, prepare yourself, give it your best and don't fear failure. I wanted to get more women aware of, thinking about and taking up golf. And I think in those regards we were greatly successful."

Suzy and Bill Whaley have been just as successful raising their daughters, both of whom have gone on to become collegiate golfers themselves. Bill gives much of the parenting credit to his wife. "She's a wonderful mother and a great role model for our daughters. She's shown them, and countless others, both in words and deeds, to not play it safe, to go out on a limb, and get out of your comfort zone. Don't fear failure, but embrace the chance to get to the next level."

Whaley is now at the ultimate level, a national officer with the PGA of America. And if she ascends to the presidency, there will be no more levels to climb.

Joel Zuckerman, called "One of the Southeast's most respected and sought-after golf writers" by Golfer's Guide Magazine, is an award-winning travel writer based in Savannah, Ga. His seventh and latest book, entitled "Pro's Pros - Extraordinary Club Professionals Making Golf Great!" was released in June 2013. This is the first-ever golf book to shine the spotlight on the beating heart of golf - the unsung, yet hard-working club professional. Joel's course reviews, player profiles, essays and features have appeared in 110 publications, including Sports Illustrated, Golf, Continental Magazine and Delta's Sky Magazine. He has played more than 800 courses in 40-plus states and a dozen countries. For more about Joel, or to order this unique new book, visit www.vagabondgolfer.com.

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